Gov. Chris Christie yesterday met with a newborn baby whose life was saved thanks to a bill that was sponsored by Bayonne Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell.

The law, which took effect on Sept. 1, requires that newborns be screened for life-threatening heart defects before they leave the hospital.

Christie toured Newton Medical Center yesterday and met with the Gordon family, whose 2-month-old son Dylan is alive because of detection and treatment resulting from New Jersey’s first-in-the-nation law.

“As governor, you sign a lot of bills into law, but it’s a rare day when you know a piece of legislation you signed saved a life,” Christie said in a statement. “I’m proud to say that New Jersey has led the way in requiring this life-saving test, which demonstrates our commitment to early detection in children like Dylan.”

On Sept. 1, a day after the law mandating inclusion of pulse oximetry testing on newborns became effective, a hospital pediatrician informed the Gordons that the test performed on their baby was abnormal and that he had a heart murmur.

Dylan was rushed to Morristown Medical Center, where it was determined he needed specialized pediatric cardiac surgery. Dylan was then transferred to Columbia University Medical Center, and several days later had the life-saving surgery correcting the abnormality discovered from the newly mandated newborn testing, officials said.

O’Donnell sponsored the legislation in part because his own 4-year-old son Patrick was diagnosed with congenital heart failure soon after he was born and received a life-saving operation at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

“It’s tremendous,” O’Donnell said of seeing the law go into effect. “Anytime a life can be saved it’s not only a benefit to the state of New Jersey, but it’s (also) what governments should be doing.”